News & Events

Student-built vehicle powered by sustainable energy

For the fifth year in a row, the students in the mechanical engineering program have designed and built an electrically powered vehicle as part of their education.

The car was recently on public display at the Motor Stadium in Linköping, Sweden.

Like last year's vehicle, it is designed to satisfy needs of a global market and to run on electricity generated by a wind power station.

This year's model, GlobaLiTH, is an electrically powered four-wheel drive vehicle with a top speed of about 70 km/hour and a driving circumference of roughly 100 to 150 kilometers from the power station.

The car was developed for rugged rural terrain such as that of Central or South America.

The students cooperated with a real-life business enterprise, Skyllermarks, whose product line includes small wind power stations developed in-house. Since GlobaLiTH runs on electricity supplied by the Skyllermarks station, the environmental impact and the operating costs are low.

Both the wind station and the vehicle are constructed of composite materials to achieve a long operating life.

The vehicle project was completed under the guidance of Petter Krus, Professor in machine design.